title: Sub-threshold standard cell library design for ultra-low power biomedical applications.
abstract: Portable/Implantable biomedical applications usually exhibit stringent power budgets for prolonging battery life time, but loose operating frequency requirements due to small bio-signal bandwidths, typically below a few kHz. The use of sub-threshold digital circuits is ideal in such scenario to achieve optimized power/speed tradeoffs. This paper discusses the design of a sub-threshold standard cell library using a standard 0.18-µm CMOS technology. A complete library of 56 standard cells is designed and the methodology is ensured through schematic design, transistor width scaling and layout design, as well as timing, power and functionality characterization. Performance comparison between our sub-threshold standard cell library and a commercial standard cell library using a 5-stage ring oscillator and an ECG designated FIR filter is performed. Simulation results show that our library achieves a total power saving of 95.62% and a leakage power reduction of 97.54% when compared with the same design implemented by the commercial standard cell library (SCL).
authors.forename: Ming-Zhong
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Chio-In
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Ieong
authors.forename: Man-Kay
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Law
authors.forename: Pui-In
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Mak
authors.forename: Mang-I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Vai
authors.forename: Rui P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Martins
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004560:Electricity; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D019736:Prostheses and Implants; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012984:Software; D059015:Wireless Technology